Some responded to the question with “action” lists like: putting my butt in the chair; making time to write; setting my alarm clock earlier. This kind of list reflects the practicalities and realities of writing. The need to make time and space for it. And certainly, without doing those things, the writing won’t get done. So we have to be responsible for creating a context in which the work can happen.

Twenty minutes is a sufficient length of time to do quite a bit of writing. And yet, it’s not too long that you start to get anxious and call up the inner critic. Best of all, if you find yourself in the flow, you can set the timer for another twenty.

Have you ever heard the aphorism, “What you resist, persists”? Truth is, when we suffer from writer’s block––that tendency to do absolutely anything rather than face the terror of the blank page––we often berate ourselves. We don’t like the feeling of being blocked. It makes us feel inadequate, not worthy, and untalented. It often triggers…